


call it what you want

by trebleclef2011



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: AU, F/M, flirty rivals, probending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-20
Updated: 2012-10-04
Packaged: 2017-11-11 10:49:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/477739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trebleclef2011/pseuds/trebleclef2011
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"From her high seat in the balcony of the arena, she sees him make smart, strategic moves. He's incredibly serious about the sport and throws all of his passion into each strike. It isn't often that his moves don't connect and force other players into the water below the ring."  AU.  Makorra.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

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The first time Korra saw Republic City, the lights of the Pro-bending Arena gleamed, obscuring most of the city from her vision. Brightly against the dark night sky when she was finally allowed to stay in the city to train with Tenzin, it lit up her vision.

Like a beacon.

The first probending match she ever sees is between the Fire Ferrets and the Tigerdillos. The waterbender, Hasook, is a rather poor and flashy player…sacrificing the progress of his team to show off fancy moves that got them nowhere. The other members of the team - Mako and Bolin - are serious about the game. Bolin was really into it, focusing his energy into strength attacks. He has fun while slinging disks toward the opponent, earthbending them further and further into the back zones with ease.

She's really impressed with Mako, though.

From her high seat in the balcony of the arena, she sees him make smart, strategic moves. He's incredibly serious about the sport and throws all of his passion into each strike. It isn't often that his moves don't connect and force other players into the water below the ring. His firebending is at least as good as hers had been during her final test back in the South Pole…and she's been fighting master firebenders.

Due to Hasook's poor playing and shoddy footwork, the Tigerdillos gain heavily on the Ferrets and send Bolin and Hasook prematurely into the water. Mako is left in the ring alone, dodging attacks until he can make a strike back. The Tigerdillos evenually can't hold their elements long enough to have any lasting impact on the firebender and he strikes back, easily knocking the waterbender into the water below from his position in the Fire Ferrets' second zone. Compared to Mako's position in the third zone of the Fire Ferrets' territory, it's an incredibly strong move.

It's not long until he beats the other team's firebender out of playing position and it's just him and their earthbender, who is suddenly in the third zone of his own territory, the arena obscured by a cloud of dust. Nobody can see anything and Korra cranes her neck to see what is going to happen next.

Suddenly Mako appears from nowhere and delivers a blow that sends the earthbender over the side.

"It's a knockout!" Shiro Shinobi, the announcer, yells.

Korra, who had been holding her breath almost for the last four minutes of the match, jumps up and screams happily with the rest of the Fire Ferret fans.

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As the arena begins to empty and everyone leaves to go back home, Korra sees a huge bulletin board in the front lobby which reads: "Firebender needed! Meet in arena gym tomorrow at 11:00 am. Red Sands Rabbiroos."

Taking the flyer down from the board, Korra folds it and takes it back with her to Air Temple Island, where she sleeps peacefully before deciding how to break the news to Tenzin that she both defied his orders and was thinking of joining a team.

She'll worry about that tomorrow.

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The next day at airbending practice, Korra cannot seem to move through the gates without bumping into any of them. Predictably, becomes anxious and frustrated and destroys them after hitting one for the last time. Firebending against the defenseless gates, they erupt in an explosion.

"That was a two-thousand year old historical treasure," Tenzin says in a measured tone before yelling, "What…WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"There's nothing wrong with me!" Korra retaliates. "I've been practicing just like you taught me but it _isn't sinking in,_ OKAY? It hasn't clicked like you said it would."

"Korra, this isn't something you can force. If you would only listen to me…

"I HAVE BEEN! But you know what I think? Maybe the problem isn't me. Maybe the reason I haven't learned Airbending yet is because you're a terrible teacher!" Korra stomps off angrily, leaving Tenzin and three children. She hears Meelo screaming afterward and is hit with a pang of guilt.

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After airbending practice, Korra leaves the island to see about the flyer she picked up the night before at the arena. Entering the front of the arena this time, she leaves Naga out front.

"It's alright, girl, I'll bring you some fish after this." Korra feels as if this may be her only opportunity to gain some freedom in Republic City. She enters the arena, which is fairly deserted, almost fifteen minutes before eleven.

Trying to locate the gym was another debacle she hadn't anticipated.

Wandering around the arena, she finds herself in many places she doesn't recognize from her trip here last night. She'd found the entrance to the arena easily through that window, but that was the extent of her exploration. Suddenly she's in a bathroom, and turns around instantly. Back in the hallway, Korra, looks around for anyone who could help her find her way to the gym.

"Excuse me," she says to a boy in exercise clothing exiting a room, "can you tell me where the arena's gym is?"

"Sure," he says, and she recognizes his build and dark hair from the match last night. She doesn't say anything yet as he walks her around to the gym entrance, where two other girls in similar gear to the boy, albeit a different color, are practicing. One is a waterbender and the other an earthbender, she can see from their exercises.

The boy introduces himself. "Name's Bolin, by the way."

"Korra," she says in return, shaking his hand roughly in hers. He seems a bit overwhelmed by her instant familiarity, but responds in much the same way.

"Nice to meet you, Korra," he says, and noticing that the girls have stopped their exercises to meet her, says, "I'll see you around sometime." He leaves, going down to hall.

Korra smiles and turns to the girls.

"Hello," the taller girls says. Her exercise apparel indicates that she is the team's waterbender. "I'm Umi."

"Nice to meet you," Korra says, taking the girl's hand and shaking it in a way less abrasively than she shook Bolin's.

"I'm Ula," said the earthbender. Her long dark hair was tied up in a ponytail. Korra shook her hand as well. "Korra."

"So, did you see the flyer?" Umi said.

"Yeah," Korra said, pulling it out of the pocket in her loose pants.

"I'm sorry, Korra, but we aren't in need of a waterbender." Umi said. "That's my job."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, noting her particularly Water Tribe getup. "I'm a firebender, like you said on the flyer."

"Huh?" Ula said. "But you're…so Water Tribe." She pointed at Korra's blue attire and fur wrap, confused.

"True," Korra said, for the first time feeling a little embarrassed by her title.

"Wait, wait," Umi said. "Are you…by any chance…the Avatar?"

"That would be the case," Korra said.

"Well, isn't that special," Ula said, lowering a disk to the ground before she dropped it on her foot.

"I suppose," Korra retorted.

"Let's get started, then," Umi said. "We've got our old teammate's uniform here…it's not quite your size, but it'll do the job."

"Okay." And with that, Korra began training with the Rabbiroos.

"Korra, here's the pro-bending rulebook," Umi says, giving her a small booklet. "Read up, especially the firebending parts. We can't have you doing illegal headshots during a match."

"Okay," she says, feeling embarrassed and incredibly apologetic toward the girl. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine, just be glad we were wearing helmets for this initial tryout." She smirks.

"Korra, thanks for stepping in for us," Ula says, looking more amiable than Korra's ever seen her look. Then again, it's been two hours of hardcore practice wherein her teammates had been bending at her nonstop, trying to gauge her level of firebending.

"No, thank you," Korra says. "I would never have gotten this chance if it weren't for you guys."

"Don't mention it," Umi says.

"Now, your first match is in three days. We're playing in the exhibition against a bunch of teams, so it would be best if you were ready."

"I'll be ready," Korra assures them.

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	2. Chapter 2

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She doesn't show up at dinner that night with Tenzin and his family, opting instead to visit the arena again. She sits in the nosebleed section once more, watching as Mako bails the team out of another match, this time with the Platypus Bears. She can tell that if there were anyone else available, Hasook would be canned in no time, but the games are quickly approaching the Championship tournament, which they all would be participating in in a few weeks.

The Platypus Bears are pretty good, and Hasook is knocked out fairly quickly, as always. She isn't that good at pro-bending yet, she knows, but she'd be better than that guy. Mako and Bolin, called the "Fabulous Bending Brothers," by Shiro Shinobi, are good as always, but being hosed by the Bears' waterbender isn't helping them stay on their game. Once Hasook is out of the way, they finish the match handily, sending the other team into the water. She realizes that she met Bolin earlier that day and wonders about these Fabulous Bending Brothers.

When Korra sees Tenzin in the balcony of the arena, not watching the match but searching high and low, she knows he's looking for her.

And she runs.

Umi and Ula live in one of the apartments in the probending arena despite their name, the Red Sands Rabiroos. She goes to visit them, prolonging her punishment by Tenzin.

Korra knocks in the door first, having learned a few things from living on the island with Tenzin's family. Bursting into a room without asking first wasn't usually a correct move.

"Come in!" Ula calls.

"Hey, it's me," Korra says. "Korra."

"Oh, nice to see you," Ula gets up from her spot on the couch. "Do you want anything to eat?"

"No, that's okay," Korra says. "I'm just…" her voice trails off in the middle of the sentence and she sits down in the Rabbiroo's living room.

"What is it?" Ula says, sitting on the couch.

"My airbending master is here. In the arena. And I'm avoiding him."

"Why?"

"Because I called him a terrible teacher at practice today."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"That'll do it," Ula said. "I did that with my dad plenty of times when I was first learning Earthbending. It'll be alright."

"Thanks."

"Do you want to stay here for a little bit?"

"That would be great," Korra said. She spread out in a chair next to the couch and looked up at the high ceiling, thinking about how she was going to apologize to Tenzin.

"Do you want to go to the gym and practice some footwork?"

"Sure," Korra said, getting up and walking to the gym with Ula.

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"Ugh, I didn't realize this was so hard!" Korra said, trying and failing to successfully dodge the disks Ula earthbent at her. They hit her in the stomach and began to hurt through the thick padding of the gear she wore. She saw that other players were coming into the gym when Ula's attacks stopped.

It's the Fire Ferrets.

Or two-thirds of them, anyway.

Both Mako and Bolin had changed out of their bright red uniforms into other practice gear. Korra's was a sandy brown color and the red ties indicated her status as the Rabbiroos' firebender. She didn't exactly know how to react to the Ferrets in the gym, especially because she'd come to regard them mildly as celebrities. She'd met Bolin when he brought her to this gym earlier today, and looked at Ula to figure out what to do.

Ula shrugged, and they moved deeper into the gym, allowing the Ferrets space to practice.

"Hey!" Bolin walks over to them as Korra completes a fireblast in response to Ula's disk careening toward her.

"Oh, hey," she says conspiratorially, and took off her helmet to greet Bolin.

"You remember me, right? Bolin? I showed you here earlier?"

"Yeah, thanks," Korra says, trying to be as appreciative as possible. She wouldn't have found her team if he hadn't wheeled her in the right direction.

"So…are you on a team?"

"She's on our team," Ula said, dusting her hands off and coming to stand next to Korra.

"Hey, Ula," Bolin says. So they knew each other.

"Hey, Bolin," Ula says, picking up a medicine ball and throwing it at him.

"What brings you to the gym?" Bolin asks.

"New member of the team," Ula says.

"I met her. Seems I brought her here," he looks pleased with himself. "Waterbender?" Bolin asks, throwing the ball to Korra.

"No, firebender," Korra corrects.

"Oh, sorry," Bolin says, looking confused. "Come on, you can meet my brother."

"Okay," Korra responds, leaving Ula, who already knew the Ferrets, to her practicing.

"Korra, this is my brother, Mako."

"Mako? I heard you play on the radio!" Korra says, holding out her hand.

"Bolin," he says, walking away, "we need to practice."

"Or," Korra said, turning away, "I could meet him later."

"We just got done with that match!" Bolin said, frustrated with his no-nonsense brother.

"Which we barely won, again, thanks to that no-good Hasook," Mako says, looking sufficiently annoyed.

"No, it was pretty good. You just had to wait for him to get knocked off the ring," Korra says, trying not to inject her feelings about the team into her feelings about the players. She didn't even know them yet. But Mako seemed a little…irritating.

"Really? You saw it?" Bolin asks.

"Yeah, before I had to duck and run from my airbending teacher," Korra says.

"Airbending teacher," Bolin repeats.

"Uh huh," Korra says.

"So you're from the Water Tribe," Korra nodded to keep him going, "you're the Rabbiroos' firebender and you have an airbending teacher?" Bolin asks.

"Uh huh," Korra says.

"I'm very confused right now."

"You're the Avatar, and I'm an idiot," Mako says from across the gym.

"Both are true."

"No way," Bolin says, looking back toward Mako. "THE Avatar!"

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	3. Chapter 3

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"Come on! Faster! You'll never survive in the ring if you keep moving like that!" Mako yells at Korra, bombarding her with fireblasts as she and Ula spar with the Fabulous Bending Brothers.

"This is my FIRST DAY!" Korra says before jumping aside and delivering a final blow similar to the one she delivered in her firebending test at the South Pole. Arms extended, she bends fire from her fists toward Mako, who falls down.

"That's definitely illegal!" says Bolin.

"Oh, sorry," Korra says. She's not particularly good at picking up on the rules of Pro-bending, especially ones that aren't expressly articulated in the book.

"Future reference," says Mako, getting up from the floor, "attacks aren't supposed to last more than one second in duration. They have to write that for waterbenders, but most firebenders can't hold a blast that long."

"Oops," Korra says.

He looks irritated as usual and Korra wonders if he's always this angry. Then again, it is getting pretty late, but she refuses to stop. Some of Tenzin's airbending moves have proved handy after she couldn't figure out how to dodge like she was supposed to.

Umi, Korra's other new teammate, walked in during Korra's onslaught against Mako and began helping with training. Korra still wasn't getting the hang of the style of bending used for the sport and became more and more frustrated.

As the attacks came flying, water from Umi, fire from Mako, and earth from Bolin, Korra suddenly understands the movement necessary for evading the strikes. Korra begins spinning in a manner similar to Jinora and Ikki in the spinning gates she'd destroyed. Suddenly she feels less exposed to the attacks, which fly by her into the nets. She dodges them one by one. Her spins are calculated, but freeing. She feels free. The attacks stop.

"Wow, that was…" Umi begins.

"Not bad," Mako says.

"Amazing! You're a natural at this!" Bolin says.

Korra smiles, basking in the glow of praise. She's used to it by now, being the Avatar and all, but she hasn't heard much of it since she arrived in the city.

"Okay," Korra says, "One more round."

The training session with the Ferrets and Rabbiroos lasts until Korra can hardly see straight and it's late at night.

"It is way too late for this," Ula announces. "I'm going to bed." She walks lazily out of the open double doors of the gym entrance and bids Korra farewell.

"I should go home too," Korra says, gathering her things from earlier. Tenzin has to have gone by now.

"It was nice to see you again," says Bolin, sticking out his hand.

"You too. I hope I'll see you around," Korra says, smiling.

"You will. If your teammates are living here and you guys are in the tournament, you'll definitely be seeing us."

"Nice to meet you, Avatar Korra," Mako says from yards away at one of the nets, packing his things.

Korra reaches the door to leave and lifts her own hand to wave goodbye.

"Yeah. Been a real pleasure."

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Korra leaves hastily, trying to avoid the awkwardness that could occur on her way back to the front lobby. She sees a clock in the hallway which tells her it is nearly one in the morning. She doesn't know if Naga will be awake and doesn't particularly remember if she's tied out front. All she can think of are fireblasts and legal moves in the ring.

Stumbling through the hallway, Korra finds herself once again lost, because she's only explored a few levels of the arena. Now she's in the basement with nowhere to go.

Walking around the basement, she passes many creepy-looking rooms with locked doors and can't find her way out. She lost track of the stairwell because all of the halls in the arena are identical. Maybe there's some distinguishing factor she's missing, but she can't find it. She's stuck.

"Aughh, where am I?" Korra would firebend to relieve her frustrations, but there's nothing to burn. And she's not well-known enough in the arena to be forgiven for burning it down.

After what seems like hours of looking around, Korra finally finds a single stairwell leading to the first floor and begins her ascent. She sees another clock and finds that thirty minutes have passed. It's so early in the morning. Or so late at night. At this point, Korra's so tired that it doesn't even matter anymore. She just wants to get home.

On her way up the stairs, her fur wrap slips off and she bends down to pick it up. Someone begins coming down the stairs and she can hear their footsteps light on the top few steps. Korra's hair had come down from its ponytail and she'd taken it out a long time ago, too exhausted to care. She stands upright and notices that it's the older Fire Ferret coming down the stairs.

She suddenly feels awkward and avoids looking his way as he approaches, trying not to make the exchange worse than it had to be. Based on the way he'd treated her earlier, Korra didn't really want to get involved with him at all.

"Hey," he says, passing her. She notices that his hair is wet.

Does he live here?

"Hey," she responds, continuing up the stairs.

On the first floor, finally, Korra locates the lobby and leaves, noting that she'd left Naga back on Air Temple Island and swam here, just like the first time. She jumps into the bay and swims back.

In her room, after having snuck back in, she thinks about pro-bending again. She thinks about her new team members, the Rabbiroos. She thinks about the Ferrets and incredible hat tricks and annoying firebenders. She thinks about the sport, looking out of her window at the arena, still aglow.

And then she sleeps.

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The next day, she wakes up early despite the late time she went to sleep (was it 2 am? 3? Korra has no idea, her head just hurts). Tenzin is in the meditation pavilion with Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo, all of whom are peacefully meditating. Korra can barely stand up straight and puts on the Airbending garb, ambling down to the pavilion clumsily. Sitting next to Meelo, she attempts to meditate for the first time in a long time.

Still unable to focus completely, Korra tries to detach her soul from her body and "let her mind be free". It's not at all easy, especially since she knows that Tenzin had gone to the arena last night looking for her and had found no one and probably no information.

At breakfast later, she avoids making eye contact with Tenzin, who doesn't seem to acknowledge her presence at the table out of anger. She's hurt by the silent treatment.

"Tenzin," she says, "I'm sorry about last night."

"Hmm?" He still doesn't look at her.

"I'm really, really, sorry," she says, rejection forcing her to stare at her breakfast. "I didn't mean to make you worry or anything and I'm really sorry I called you a terrible teacher. I was frustrated with myself and I took it out on you." Korra looks up and sees Tenzin and his family all looking at her.

"That's fine," Tenzin says, looking apologetic. "I'm sorry too. I lost my patience."

Korra smiles.

"Thanks. Also, I joined one of the pro-bending teams."

Tenzin sighs dramatically.

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	4. Chapter 4

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The Pro-bending exhibition was an event which was planned around fan reaction to the regular season and involved any team willing to participate in it. The Rabbiroos were doing it for extra practice, she'd learned from Umi later that first week.

"We all need it," she'd said. "Especially you."

"Excuse me," Korra murmured to herself. It wasn't like she hadn't been practicing, but airbending was really hard for her!

Ugh. Pro-benders.

Korra saw the participation list of teams for the exhibition almost a week after she'd joined the team and saw that the Ferrets, who lived down the hall from Umi and Ula, were going to be in it too.

Exhibition training was brutal. Korra practiced most of her time away from Air Temple Island with Ula and Umi, who drilled her as if she'd never firebent a day in her life. (An assumption that was absolutely not true, considering she'd spend most of the last three years perfecting her firebending for that last test.) When it wasn't their time in the gym, they bargained for time by holding scrimmages with the other teams there. They'd played against the Ferrets more than a few times and against the Platypus Bears a lot as well. It seemed that there were several teams with members holed up in the arena, living there.

One afternoon, arriving from airbending practice with Tenzin, she finds Umi and Ula working in the gym and decides to ask them about themselves, because they'd been so focused on bending for days on end that it was like she hadn't met them at all.

"So," Korra says, "what's up with you guys?"

"Nothing," Umi says, "We're training."

"I mean, what's your story? We haven't learned anything about each other and it's been nearly three weeks since I joined this team."

"Hmm," Ula says, volleying disks with rapid speed at the nets, "I was born in Ba Sing Se. Both of my parents were Earthbenders. I already told you about my dad, right?"

"Yeah, you mentioned it."

"He taught me everything. We moved to Republic City when I was thirteen. Started training with a different master at that age and we got caught up in Pro-bending…"

"And I met Ula here when we were fifteen. We've been best friends ever since," Umi says, smiling. "Do you remember that season I met you? You and your dad were here practically every night of the tournament then."

"Yeah," Ula says, laughing with recognition. "Adi was with you."

"And then your dad suggested we get a team together."

"Best suggestion he ever made," Ula remarks.

"That's cool," Korra says, remembering that she didn't really have any friends of her own growing up in the compound. Just White Lotus sentries and bending masters. It was a sort of boring life. A prisoner's life.

"Adi broke her leg about four days before we posted that flyer. She was our firebender," Umi explains. "She couldn't play this season so we needed to get somebody new."

"I'm sorry…that must stink," Korra imagines debilitating injuries like scars on the egos of their victims.

"It did," Umi says, "we were about one day away from withdrawing our participation."

"Thanks for giving me a chance," Korra says gratefully.

"Thanks for giving US a chance," Umi says. She's not usually like this. Umi is hardcore during practice, one of the most hardcore waterbenders she's ever met. She always keeps her hair tied up tight to focus solely on bending. "If you hadn't showed up to fill that spot, we wouldn't even be in the running for tournament status at all."

Korra, for the first time in a long time, was speechless and just smiled back at her teammates.

"Okay, so you should practice that acrobatic move one more time," Umi says, changing the subject. "It'll come in handy when they aim low."

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After a while in the gym, Korra is once again exhausted and after changing out of her sweaty exercise gear, lays down on the floor and stares at the ceiling.

Thinking about the pro-bending exhibition and tournament approaching, she sighs. There are so many teams she has to defeat this time around. She hasn't even actually played in a real match yet. Covering her face with her hands, she groans, thinking about everything she has to worry about. Airbending, pro-bending, and dealing with this "Amon" fellow. She hadn't had to deal with the Equalists much yet, but based on that protester's display her first day in the city, it wasn't going to be a simple issue.

Korra covers her face with her arm and sighs.

"Get your ass in the gym. You haven't been here at all!"

"Screw you, man. We've done fine in all of our match up until now!"

"Not because of you! It's probably in spite of you!" Korra hears two boys yelling at each other as they approached the gym, but Umi and Ula had left to eat dinner in their apartment a long time ago and Korra is not interested in getting off the floor.

"Good grief, Hasook!" She sees Mako and the other Ferrets round the corner into the gym. She looks down and realized that she hadn't put her shirt on yet because it had been so hot.

Scrambling to get up and find her shirt, which was inconveniently located at the gym's entrance where the boys were, she's thankful for underclothes. She usually wouldn't be this nervous, either.

"Korra!" Bolin says, waving. "What brings you to our illustrious gym?"

"Daily practices," she says, exhaustion seeping into her voice as she pulls her shirt over her head. Nothing was exposed anyway, so she doesn't particularly mind with Bolin. "You've got one, too?"

"Yeah," he says, jabbing his thumb at Mako, who is stretching to warm up, and Hasook, who doesn't appear to be doing anything except basic waterbending exercises.

"Bolin," she says, pulling him aside, "what's going on with Hasook? He doesn't really seem to have it together."

"He doesn't," Bolin says, looking frustrated. "He needs a lot more training and an attitude adjustment."

"If you want," Korra says, "I could help you out."

"Could you?" Bolin looks incredibly relieved. "Because this crap has gone on long enough."

"Leave it to me," Korra says, "I'm the Avatar."

Staying the gym, Korra puts back on her regretfully cold exercise gear. She's waterbending today, so she has to warm up first. Bending whatever water was in that uniform out of it, it doesn't suck so much to stretch her aching muscles again and put the no longer damp suit on her body.

"Hasook," she says assertively, "fight me."

"Do I know you?" he scoffs in response. It might actually be possible, Korra thinks, for someone to be a bigger asshole than Mako.

"Well, you should," Korra says. "I'm the Avatar? I've been on the radio and in the papers?" Pulling the Avatar card, she hopes to put this guy in his place. Korra crosses her arms over her chest.

"…Oh," Hasook says, looking a little less confident and haughty than usual. "Sure, I guess." Bolin looks on, smirking, while Korra and Hasook set up.

It doesn't take three minutes for Korra to knock him off his feet. Additionally, she's waterbending, which she doesn't do very much these days, and she's exhausted.

"AGH!" Hasook yells, getting up and waterbending himself dry. "What was that for?"

"I'm trying to prove a point," Korra says. "I think that your showiness is getting in the way of your gameplay."

"How would you know?" Hasook responds angrily. He isn't good at taking criticism.

"I've seen every one of your matches since that one with the Tigerdillos," Korra says. "You have plenty of talent and potential, you just need to calm your ego, pal."

Hasook stands there, looking irritated and saying nothing.

"All you really need to do is focus on your opponent and try to send attacks only to send them back," Korra says, putting her hands on her hips and pulling her helmet off. "I had your same problem! Thinking you can do more than you're capable of is rough, but practice makes perfect. So keep practicing," she smiles, "and don't let anyone get the better of you."

"Hmph," Hasook responds, but he stays in the gym, and there are less nasty retorts to Mako and less flashy bending than usual.

Korra stays in their practice, knowing that she herself has a long way to go still.

Partway through, she realizes that she can't actually hold her arms up to firebend anymore and collects her things to leave.

"Bye guys," she says, her bag on her shoulder.

"See you later, Korra!" Bolin says enthusiastically, waving as she walks out the gym.

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Dragging her feet through the hallways of the arena, she passes Ula.

"Korra, I'm glad I caught you. Umi wants to do a team bonding thing."

"Team bonding?" Korra asks.

"Yeah, it's basically you staying over with us this weekend. Does that sound okay?"

"Sure, I'll see you then," Korra says. "When do I need to get here?"  
"Around 5, I think," Ula says.

"I'll be here," Korra says, feeling herself get more and more tired as she trudges toward the lobby.

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	5. Chapter 5

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Korra comes to the arena without Naga, because it had proved a ridiculous inconvenience to tie her up out front and wait for the ferry to get back across every single time. She usually swam because it was easier. Today, she'd had to bargain with Tenzin for "bonding time" with the girls, again, because he still didn't care much for pro-bending, and she needed to know them and trust them.

Also, Umi had planned on extensive practices throughout the weekend that Korra couldn't afford to miss right before the exhibition and tournament, which was the next week. Korra was busy worrying about what the exhibition would be like, and if they refs would find out she was the Avatar. Her teammates knew, and she wasn't using anything other than firebending in the ring, so she wasn't majorly concerned anymore.

The first few practices had been hell, though...she wasn't able to not use earth or waterbending, and Umi had gotten really angry with her about using more than one element. After it had happened in joint practices with the Ferrets the first couple of times, she got angry looks from Hasook and Mako. Bolin just thought it was cool.

Looking up at the arena, Korra holds her hand in front of her eyes to cut the glare from the sun shining on the arena to see Ula waving out of the left tower windows.

"Hey!" she says, waving to catch Korra's attention, the sun in her eyes from its position on the horizon.

"Hey," Korra says back.

"You can come up. Umi's cooking," Ula says.

"Okay," Korra says.

On her way up the stairs to the apartment Umi and Ula share, Korra notices the brothers from the Fire Ferrets coming back to their residence, which is on the other side. She almost says hello, but their arguing keeps her from interfering. She goes up the stairs, moving quickly out of their way.

Finally at the door of their apartment, Korra raises her fist to knock, but it falls into the air as Ula opens the door, grinning. Her hair is down, and she stands in shorts and a tank top as she opens the door for Korra.

"Gotta come up the ladder," she says, beginning her ascent. Korra climbs it and looks around the apartment, covered in old magazines and smelling spicy.

"Hey, Korra," Umi says from her place in front of the stove, where she works on the food in the wok.

"What are you making?" Korra asks. "It smells amazing."

"Just curry and rice," Umi says, looking up from the steaming food at Korra. "Want some?"

"Yes," Korra says, looking at the food gleefully. Umi spoons some of it into a bowl and hands it to her. She tears into it immediately, picking up chopsticks that Ula had left out on the table earlier.

"This is delicious," Korra says, her mouth full of the stuff.

"Thanks," Umi says. "My mom taught me how to make it."

"My mom's tried to teach me how to cook for years...I just can't do it," Korra says, swallowing and continuing to stuff her face ungracefully.

"So, you're from the Southern Water Tribe," Ula says, sitting down next to Korra with her own bowl of rice and curry. "What was that like?"

"I loved it," Korra says. "Except for the whole being cooped up in a compound to learn how to bend the elements and not being allowed to leave very often thing."

"Sucks," Ula says between bites.

"Maybe," Korra says. "There were lots of good times too, like, when I was fourteen, my dad took me ice dodging."

"What's that?"

"Oh, it's this thing where you have to guide a Water Tribe boat through a field of ice out in the ocean," Korra says, not noticing the astounded faces of her teammates, "we almost died the first time! It was great."

"Sounds like it," Ula says, looking worriedly at Umi.

"What about you guys?"

"You know I grew up in Ba Sing Se," Ula says, "But Umi was born here."

"Question," Korra says, holding up a finger and putting down her spent bowl. "Actually, two. Can I have more curry? Also, why is our team name the 'Red Sands' Rabbiroos?"

"Sure," Umi refills her bowl.

"We're the Red Sands Rabbiroos because Red Sand Island is where Adi grew up," Ula clarifies.

"Oh," Korra says, feeling guilty. "Where is Adi now?"

"She's in the city, but her arm is still broken. A healer set it a while back, but healing doesn't work very fast on broken bones," Umi says. "I would know."

"You're a healer?" Korra asks around a mouthful of food.

"Yes," she says.

"Me too!"

"Cool," Umi says. "Well, she's trying to get better, but she's been staying with her parents because she can't do a lot with her right arm broken."

"I'm sorry," Korra says. She puts down the bowl she had just finished and Ula looks at her skeptically.

"You eat a lot," she says.

Korra takes no offense. "Yeah," she responds.

"Hmm." Umi turns back to the pan, continuing to cook because she liked her curry spicier.

.

.

.

Their talk throughout the night opened Korra's eyes to what was going on with her teammates. They weren't much older than her; at least Ula wasn't, she was sixteen. Umi was seventeen, like Korra, and had grown up in the city. Ula, as Korra had learned earlier, was born in Ba Sing Se with her father, who was her first teacher before she got into Pro-bending and began learning with Toza and some other earthbenders. She learned about Adi, whose childhood pet on Red Sand Island inspired the team name, and learned about the accident in which she broke her arm and disabled herself for the season. Korra trained with them a little after dinner, showing them some better moves that she'd learned from Bolin, who, though a rookie like herself, had a natural talent for pro-bending. Korra had suspected he learned everything from his brother, who was a great firebender if she'd ever seen one. If her pride was less abundant, she would have said he was the best she'd ever seen.

"He's just ridiculous," Korra says to Ula, sitting on the couch near the long windows and flipping through a pro-bending magazine. "All he ever does is pro-bend, and piss off his teammates. I mean, he's good, but he's not that good, you know?"

"He'd kind of standoffish, but so what?" Umi says, sitting across from them in a chair, playing with a collection of water from the humid air. "I don't know much about him."

Korra scowls at the very thought of Mako, and winces when Ula pulls her hair too tightly while she brushes through it.

"Do you ever do anything with your hair?"

"Not really," Korra said, waving her hand. "It just kind of stays in the ponytail and I don't worry about it."

"That's such a waste!" says Ula, coming through Korra's long brown hair with her fingers.

"Why?" Korra asks, confused by Ula's disappointment.

"It's so pretty, and you don't do anything with it. It makes me sad," says Ula, who takes pride in her own long dark hair.

"I don't need it to be pretty," Korra says, dismissing her ideas about feminine beauty easily.

"But it is!"

"Um," Korra says, "thanks?"

"I've got to teach you how to do it," Ula says.

"We have a match on Monday night," Umi says. "Teach her after the tournament."

"So, about this Mako guy," Ula says, returning to Korra's hair, attempting to do a Water-tribe style braid, which she'd learned from Umi, "what's your deal with him?"

"I don't have a deal with him," Korra says, looking guiltily at the floor.

"I don't know," Ula says, letting it loose again, "you seem pretty fixated on him to me."

"I noticed that," Umi says, pointing at Korra as if to call her out.

"There's no deal!" Korra nearly yells into the rafters, throwing her hands in the air helplessly.

"I think you've got a thing for him," Ula says.

"Mmm hmm," Umi says, looking up from her bending exercise and smirking deviously.

"I HAVE NO THING!" Korra yells.

"You think he's cute, though," Ula says, returning to Korra's hair, taking her hair ties and pulling it into a low bun.

"I deny everything," Korra says, but the redness in her cheeks spells otherwise.

"You'll figure it out," Ula says. "His brother, however, is dreamy," she says, a faraway look in her green eyes. She pulls on Korra's hair, finishing up. "There!"

"Are you done?"

"As done as I'll ever be for now. It's almost midnight. I'm tired." Ula stands up and stretches. "I brushed my teeth earlier," she says. "I'm going to bed now."

"Where's the bathroom?" Korra asks. "Is it here?"

"We don't have one inside the apartment. It's busted," Umi says. "Damn plumber won't come around until the weeks starts...and Butahka is being stingy with the landlord money again."

"I'm sorry," Korra says.

"It's fine, not your fault. The locker room is the only place with showers and sinks that we can use right now. It's down the hall, around the corner, and on your left. You can't miss it," Umi says. "There's a sign."

"Oh. Thanks."

Her clothes and toothbrush in hand, Korra trudges sleepily toward the locker room. Once she gets the tiled room, where there are several showers and sinks, and a few extra towels, she realizes that she hasn't bathed in two days and smells of polarbear dog, sweat, and exhaustion. She begins taking a shower, then realizing that there were no separated boys-and-girls facilities, and also that there were footsteps outside her shower cell.

Shit.

Korra peeks out of the side of the shower, seeing that the intruder is, in fact, male, and she knows who it is.

Rinsing the suds off, Korra wraps herself carefully in a towel and waits for the boy to pass by before she begins booking it out of the showering area and into the room with lockers, where she left her clothes and toothbrush, which was her next order of business.

"Who's there?" she hears a voice shout from the opposite end of the locker room.

"Uhhmmmm," Korra says, trying not to look in Mako's direction, lest she see the look on his face when he realizes that she's mostly naked. "Could you get out?"

"Oh," Mako says, noticing her. "OH!" He turns around abruptly. "Sorry!" he says, just before leaving the changing area.

Korra stands, still dripping wet, and opens the locker where she put her clothes before showering. She takes out her blue tank top and some baggy pants she brought to sleep and practice in, and puts them on. The sink area isn't empty though, and Mako stands at one of them, looking down into the white porcelain, his hands gripping the sides of it while water streams into the basin.

"Hey," Korra says, taking her place at one a few over from him, since there are only four there. Her face is burning, and she refuses to look at him, and he seems to be doing the same. He picks up his own toothbrush after a few moments.

"I'm sorry," Mako says, "about that...Toza gives us extra yuans if I clean up the locker room."

"Good to know," Korra says, her mouth full of toothpaste. She spits. "Is your bathroom broken too?"

"No, we just don't have one," Mako says, looking into the sink and rinsing his toothbrush. "It never got installed."

"Well," Korra says, taking her things and looking toward the exit, "That's unfortunate."

"Yeah," Mako says, running a hand through his hair as he talks. "It is what it is."

Korra looks over at him, not expecting this attitude. Why did he need extra yuans?

Who was he, really?

Korra's face heats up, and as she realized it, she suddenly says "I've gotta go."

"See you later," Mako says.

Her eyes meet his and she notices how gold they are. She looks away suddenly after a long minute.

"Yeah, bye," Korra says, moving out of the doorway and down the hall.

What the hell was going on?

.

.

.

The next morning, Umi wakes them up, banging a wooden spoon against a pan in the living room, where Korra fell asleep instantly after returning from the hall bathroom.

"What the shit, Umi?" Ula says.

"What did you say?" Korra asks.

"Oh," Ula blushes. "I sometimes...curse in the mornings."

"Only every morning," Umi says. "Get up and get dressed. We have training to do."

"Fine," Korra says, her eyes still shut as she pulls on the training uniform she'd left in their apartment from last time. It's Saturday morning, and she looks out of the windows, noticing the sun coming over the horizon.

"What the hell kind of practice schedule do you have us doing?" she asks Umi.

"The kind where we get extra hours in by working around the schedule."

"But...why?"

"Um, you haven't played a real match yet? Just get up."

"Ugh."

In the gym, Korra firebends until her fingers starts to peels at the tips from the heat. She's gotten lazy because it is so early.

"Can we stop now?" she says when Umi takes a five minute breaks from waterbending at a dummy.

"We're going to have another practice at four," Umi says, "but you can have lunch."

"Yes!" Korra jumps in the air, pumping her fist. "Ula, let's get food," she suggests.

"Okay," Ula says, slowly walking toward the gym exit and toward her apartment, where they get dressed and head out.

In town square, below the enormous statue of the former Fire Lord, Korra spots Bolin, doing some stunt with his pet fire ferret. His normal green jacket is adorned with a brightly colored vest, and he's wearing an enormous mustache.

"Bolin?" Korra says, walking toward him, Ula trailing behind her with a huge carton of noodles. "What are you doing out here?"

"Oh, just the usual," he says, looking caught off guard by the girls. "Trying to make money for the tournament!"

"Oh, the championship pot?" Ula says. She's standing up next to Korra, looking down at Bolin.

"Yeah," Bolin says.

That explains why Mako needed extra yuans.

"Why don't you come eat with us, Bolin?" Korra suggests. "We have noodles?"

"What kind of noodles?"

"Water tribe style," Korra says, extending her hand to the boy.

"Well, okay," he says, smiling wide.

.

.

.

In central park, Korra, Ula, and Bolin sit on the bridge, their legs dangling over the water as they share two cartons of noodles from Narook's Seaweed Noodlery, which Ula had introduced to Korra earlier that week.

"These are so good," Bolin says. He slurps one down and sighs happily.

"I know!" Korra says. "I haven't had this in forever," she adds.

"Are you guys doing the exhibition?" Ula asks, looking at Bolin.

"Yeah," he says. "Starts on Monday, right?" He looks at his carton, the light draining out of his eyes a little. "Just one week until the tournament."

"Bolin," Korra says, looking at him. "Be honest. How close are you to making the championship pot?"

"We're not," he says, looking away. "We don't have any money."

Good grief. Korra and Ula look in separate directions, unable to face this. Ula had never had financial troubles, and their ante had been sponsored by Red Sand Island's government and Ula's father back in Ba Sing Se. Korra had never needed money before, due to the interference of the White Lotus in her life. She was dumbstruck at the thought of Bolin and Mako's financial troubles.

"I'm so sorry," Ula says finally, looking at Bolin with not pity, but sadness in her eyes.

"Me too," says Bolin.

"It's not too late, though," Korra says. "We can figure something out."

"I know, that's why I was trying to help with Pabu."

"We can help you, if you want," Korra offers. Bolin looks at her, turning his head to the left to meet her blue eyes.

"Really?"

"Definitely," she says.

.

.

.


	6. Chapter 6

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Korra arrives at the arena Monday night, fully prepared for her first exhibition match, or so it appears.

She walks through the front lobby of the arena, shows her bender’s card to the guards keeping people in line as they wait to pay for entrance, and walks up to Umi and Ula’s apartment. She gets her uniform. She waits in the locker room, sitting with her helmet to the side, looking out at the enormous arena, and breathing deeply.

“Korra!” Ula says, smiling as she enters the waiting bay, where Korra is seated. “Ready to kick some Fire Ferret ass?”

“We’re playing the Ferrets?” Korra asks, the blood suddenly draining from her face as she looks across to the red box. They are in the blue one, corresponding to the colors on the playing ring.

“Yeah, didn’t you look at the schedule?”

“No, I was training, and then when I wasn’t doing that, I was asking Tenzin about money.”

“For the Ferrets’ ante?”

“Yeah,” Korra says, remembering the conversation.

“What did he say?”

“He said they couldn’t do anything...especially if it wasn’t my team,” Korra says, looking at the ground. 

“That’s sad,” Ula says.

“I know,” Korra says. “At least we’ll see them in the exhibition...maybe there’s time to pull something together.”

“Maybe,” Ula says, but the look on her face implies that she doesn’t think it’s going to happen. The Ferrets won’t be in the tournament.

Korra sighs deeply, waiting for Umi on the bench next to Ula, who begins talking strategy before they start the first match of the exhibition.

.  
.  
.

Watching from the red waiting box, Mako looks out at the arena, feeling less stressed out than he had in a very long time. His new friend Asami Sato, who he had met in a less-than-fortunate, but certainly fateful, moped accident, had convinced her father to sponsor their team in the tournament. They had a shot at the championship pot. They might win. 

He and Bolin might be able to start their lives...not on the streets this time, but for real. He could get a real job, maybe take certification classes or something. Bolin could train earthbending more. They could continue living at the arena. 

They wouldn’t starve. They wouldn’t have to steal...they wouldn’t have to fight for their lives. They could live.

Mako tightens his gloves, making sure to cover all the skin. They were playing the Rabbiroos, who were debuting in the exhibition with a new firebender.

Korra.

That girl, he thinks, a wry grin on his face. She was more trouble than he had been willing to bother with. She was a damn good fighter, though, and the Avatar. And as much as it embarrassed him to admit it, she was beautiful. But he couldn’t get concerned with that. He had to put on a good show tonight...and that meant not getting distracted.

Bolin strides into the locker room, Asami following behind him.

“Hey,” she says, smiling from the doorway. He turns around, smiling back at her. 

“Hey, Asami,” he responds. She walks up beside him, looking out at the arena. Mako stands there for a minute before turning to look back at her. “Um,” he begins. Asami turns her head and looks at him imploringly.

“What is it?”

“I just...thank you so much, for what you did,” he says. “We would be totally out of options if you hadn’t asked your father to sponsor us.” He doesn’t know if she realizes how destitute they used to be - growing up in the gutters of the city, not knowing from one day to the next whether they would have enough to eat or even a place to lay their heads safely for a night. Pro-bending had saved them once, and now Asami and her father were coming in to save them again. 

“It’s not a problem at all,” Asami says, her green eyes shining, the arena lights reflected in them. “You deserve this. Your team is incredible,” she says. 

“Thanks,” Mako says, his right hand coming up to scratch his head. He’s not used to sincere flattery.

“Honestly,” Asami says, turning back to look at the ring, and away from Mako, “this is really more a business investment. This sponsorship will bring new business to my father company, and you will be able to compete. It’s a win win for everybody,” she says, smiling even wider. 

“I’m glad,” Mako says. 

“Me too,” she says before Bolin walks over, Hasook in tow, and they board the platform to start the match.

.  
.  
.

Shiro Shinobi is especially loud tonight. The usual crowd is not here; though the stands are filled to the brim with spectators, there are more sponsor groups, like the leaders of the city, council members, and business leaders, as well as groups from various bending schools around the city and a few police for security. 

Korra waits on the platform with Umi and Ula as it moves across the open expanse of water between the ring and the blue waiting box. She tugs on her new uniform, its brown fabric clinging to her body. It’s not what she’s used to, having used training gear the entire time, and she looks back across the ring at the opposing team. She sees Bolin egging the crowd on, Mako waving modestly, and Hasook looking agreeable, even smiling at the audience. 

Korra is more nervous than she’s ever been.

Of course, she doesn’t back down from anything, not anything, ever, and this will be no exception. She doesn’t have to feel this weird about it, though. She’s seen this team in action many times when she trained with them, but it’s different now. It’s not the actual competition, but they are competing. Her blood burns when she looks at Mako, remembering the previous weekend’s events. She looks at Bolin, so gleeful, and wonders what happened to put him in such a good mood. 

Korra tightens her gloves and shoulder pads before the uniform connects with the ring and they walk out onto the arena floorpad. Korra lines up in her spot across from Hasook, who she has some very specific plans for once the bell rings. Mako and Bolin look too happy, but she’s ready to bring them down once the match starts. 

They haven’t seen how competitive she really is.

Once they all line up, Korra in front of Hasook, Umi in front of Mako and Ula in front of Bolin (she blushes a bit, but nobody but Korra sees), the bell goes off and fire erupts from her palms easily. Hasook is pushed back to the second zone before anyone else noticed. Korra smirks. 

The fighting continues as Korra pummels Hasook with legal fireblasts, twisting and turning to avoid the attacks coming from him. They’re stronger than she expected, but Korra is the Avatar. She sends him to the third zone after another couple of minutes, and he sits on his ass, rubbing his arm with confusion. He’s not hurt at all, he’s just not used to being beaten so badly by a girl.

Umi is giving Mako attacks nearly as good as his own, but after a while, she’s pushed back to zone two. Ula is nervously chucking discs at Bolin, her normally flawless technique screwed up by her embarrassment and infatuation with the other earthbender. 

Finally Korra knocks Hasook into the drink and steps in front of her waterbending teammate to defend her against Mako’s relentless attacks. She punches, one, two, and Mako halts, breathing heavily as she beats him. His golden eyes flash up to hers, and she turns red instantly as she sees the look on his face. He’s just as competitive as she is, and she knows he’s thinking about that night in the bathroom. Her flush deepens as she attacks in defense of her honor, not absolutely sure that he’s thinking about her sans clothes, but trying to get him to forget about it. He guards, lifting an arm to wave away the flames, and starts attacking back. He smiles and opens his mouth to speak. She defends herself against his attack and tries to hear him over the shouts and screams of the fans and the narration of Shiro.

“Having fun?” he yells.

Korra laughs despite the overload to her senses and looks back at him, smiling, fire in her own eyes as she looks at the wildness in his. 

“Hell yes,” Korra says. “I could beat you at your own game all day.” Mako laughs loudly at that.

Both of them haven’t been knocked back an inch, though Umi fights from the second zone, trying to help Ula defend herself against Bolin, who is also fighting like he could do this forever. 

Korra and Mako keep battling, getting closer as they jump throughout the first zone, focusing on nothing but each other. Ula is eventually pushed back to zone two, and Korra punches a fireball toward Mako’s little brother until he’s pushed back to his own zone. 

“Round one goes to the Rabbiroos!” the referee says. It’s true. All of their players are in the ring and Hasook’s gone. They all line up once again, this time, Korra faces Bolin, Ula faces Hasook, and Umi faces Mako. She looks at the earthbender before the round 2 bell rings and then they’re at it again. 

Korra’s quick punches send Bolin back easily, but his discs hit her squarely in the stomach and then turn her around. She ends up face-down in zone two before Ula has Hasook out of the ring and comes to her rescue. 

“Ugh!” Bolin yells as Ula hits him with a disc. He’s pushed back until he is almost in zone three when Korra quickly sends fire to put him there. 

Suddenly Mako appears out of nowhere and that’s when Korra notices that Umi’s been hit off the ring. It’s just Ula and herself now, and Mako’s in the first zone, lobbing fire at them while standing in front of Bolin, who is just getting off the ring floor. 

Korra defends as long as she can, but then Ula is sent to zone 3, and the announcer calls the second round for the Future Industries Fire Ferrets.

Korra shakes her head as her teammates line up beside her. She faces Mako this time, and that smirk on his stupid pretty face is irritating her to no end. As soon as the bell rings, she punches at him, the fire licking around his torso as he’s pushed back a bit. He fires back. She smiles as she dodges him. Why is it so much fun to fight with this guy? 

Korra punches again and again as Bolin and Hasook get tangled up because of shoddy footwork. Mako’s grimace as he looks over at them tells her that he’s more worried about his teammates than himself, and she punches him back into zone 2. Ula and Umi were already there. 

They keep attacking each other, over and over and over, and finally the bell dings, signaling the end of round 3. 

“It’s a tie!” the announcer calls. “We’ll have a tiebreaker.”

The ref tosses the coin and catches it. Korra calls heads and the Rabbiroos win the coin toss. Korra looks at her teammates, who nod before she steps onto the platform. Mako steps up as well.

“Ready to lose, Korra?” he taunts.

“Not today,” she returns, raising her fists to prepare for the tiebreaker. “How about you?”

“Nope,” he yells, right before the bell rings, signaling the beginning of the tiebreaker. 

Mako immediately steps forward, the fire flowing from his fist toward Korra’s body as she jumps out of the way. She notices that the end of her ponytail is singed and she hears Ula wince from off to her right. She ducks under his arm because the tiny platform they’re on doesn’t allow for her to do much else as she attempts to trip him up. 

“You burned my hair,” she yells as she tears into him with her firebending. 

“Oops,” Mako says as he retaliates.

One final punch sends Mako over the edge onto the ring floor, Korra standing triumphantly over him, an enormous grin on her face.

“The Rabbiroos win the match!” the announcer says.

“Ha! Chump.”

Mako stands up as the tiebreaking circle lowers back down. “You,” he stands, calmly, “will see us in the tournament.”

“I hope so!” Korra says, turned around, walking away with her teammates, smiling and waving to the crowd. She turns back for a split second and sees Mako take off his helmet. She looks at him through hers, narrowing her eyes. He winks at her.

“And we’ll win,” he says, smiling. 

Korra can’t see through the red haze as she turns around, rushes right up to him, and lifts her chin so that he can see the whites of her eyes. Why is he so tall? Why is he so assured? He just lost! She thinks.

“Is that so?” she says, noting the defiance in his countenance.

“Yep,” Mako says curtly.

“Well, bring it on, Ferret Boy,” Korra says, whipping her helmet off and stomping back over to the holding area for her team.

“What did he say?” Ula asks as she reaches them.

“Oh, nothing,” Korra says. “Just challenging me.”

.  
.  
.

She stays there, at the arena, shaking hands of politicians and fans, who all know she was the Avatar based on the introduction by the announcer before that first match had started. Ula stands next to her as she leaves the lobby to go back upstairs, but something catches her eye as she begins to leave. 

Korra sees Mako and Bolin laughing next to a beautiful girl, taller than herself with long dark hair pinned up on one side, her face made up, and dressed to kill.

And Mako looks so happy.

“Ula,” Korra says, and she stops. Korra points at the three, smiling despite their exhibition loss, and looks at Ula. “Who is that girl?”

“That’s Asami Sato. She’s the heiress to the Sato fortune. Her dad...”

Korra cuts her off. “Invented the Satomobile.” She looks back down at them. They’re on the second floor of the lobby, closer to the girls’ apartment. “So she’s rich.”

“Rich is an understatement,” Ula says.

She rushes to their apartment faster than is really necessary, but Ula stops her on the way.

“Are you okay?” her green eyes are wide with worry for her friend who seems to be having trouble making heads or tails of what she’d just seen.

“I’m fine,” she says.

“Korra,” Ula looks at her and puts her hands on her shoulders. “Really.”

Korra looks away. “I don’t know.”

.  
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	7. Chapter 7

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The next day brings a lot of airbending with Tenzin, and at dinner, they have a surprise visitor. A man Korra has never met before.

“I’m not interrupting, am I?” the tall water-tribe man says as he very clearly interrupts dinner with Tenzin’s family. He spoke nasally, his voice a mid-range tenor and sort of off-putting.

“This is my home, Tarrlok. We’re about to eat dinner,” Tenzin says.

“Good, because I am absolutely famished. Airbenders never turn away a hungry guest, am I right?” he says, his face contorted deviously as he walks over to where Korra is sitting. She looks up at him.

“Ah, you must be the famous Avatar Korra. It is truly an honor," he says. She smirks at his attempt at flattery as he bows. "I am Councilman Tarrlok, representative from the Northern Water Tribe."

Korra stands up and bows as well, forming her hands into the traditional salute. "Nice to meet you."

Ikki makes a hilarious comment about his three ponytails and smelling like a lady (Which, honestly, he does, and Korra is thrown off by it, because even she doesn't smell that girly. And she's a girl.)

Eventually his over-the-top compliments get ridiculous and Tenzin finally confronts him. 

"Enough with the flattery, Tarrlok. What do you want with Korra?"

"Patience, Tenzin. I'm getting to that," Tarrlok says. He turns toward her. "As you may have heard, I am assembling a task force that will strike at the heart of the revolution..." he puts special emphasis on his last words. "...and I want you to join me."

"Really?" Korra asks.

"What?" says Tenzin.

"I need someone who will help me attack Amon directly, someone who is fearless in the face of danger. And that someone is you," Tarrlok says.

"Join your task force?"

Korra turns back to her food. She thinks about the newspaper article she saw announcing the findings of the rally Amon had held a few weeks ago, when several members of the Triple Threat Triad had actually lost their bending. She hadn't been able to get more than two hours of sleep at a time since seeing that article. She had been paralyzed with something that she couldn't name...still, she didn't know what that feeling had been. It had settled in her stomach since and kept her from doing what she knew was necessary.

"I can't."

Tarrlok looks flabbergasted at her decision. "I must admit, I'm rather surprised. I thought you'd jump at the chance to help me lead the charge against Amon."

"Me too," Tenzin says.

Korra takes a deep breath. "I came to Republic City to finish my Avatar training with Tenzin. Right now, I just need to focus on that."

Tarrlok nearly interrupts her, "Which is why this opportunity is perfect. You would get on the job experience while performing your Avatar duty for the city."

Tenzin stands and gestures to the door. "Korra gave you her answer. It's time for you to go."

Tarrlok is still hiding his irritation at being rejected. "Very well. But I'm not giving up on you just yet. You'll be hearing from me soon. It has been a pleasure, Avatar Korra."

As he leaves, Ikki gets the last word. "Bye-bye, ponytail man!"

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As Korra trains the next day, she thinks about the exhibition matches she needs to get to and how she'd had to skip practice today in favor of airbending training. Tarrlok's assistant had come by at least three times with various gifts, all of which Korra rejected when she could because he'd gotten more and more persistent.

Umi and Ula called her before practice, and she'd explained to them why she couldn't come. Then Tarrlok tried to throw her a gala and she'd given up on fighting with his assistant about the gifts, so after having received countless flowers, some stuffed animals, one phonograph, and finally a Satomobile in the hopes that she would join his task force, she finally relented for the night. They didn't have an exhibition match, so she just put on her old blue dress that her mother had made her when she'd turned sixteen that she had worn to practically every single event she'd gone to as the Avatar and decided to stick it out. Tenzin and his family came too.

She arrives with them a little before eight, when she's supposed to be meeting her teammates for the final exhibition match. She is going to miss it, and she’d told them. She smooths her dress out when sitting in the Satomobile taking them into town, looking out of the window nervously. Pema notices her anxiety and grabs her hand. Korra turns.

“It’s okay,” she says. “Just relax. You’ll have a good time.” She rubs Korra’s back, rigid with worry about what might happen at the gala.

They arrive on time, barely, and when Korra steps out of the car, cameras surround the building, ready to take her picture and ask her about the mess with the city’s new threat: Amon and the radical nonbending group, the Equalists. Korra gives no comment.

Tarrlok meets them in the foyer and leads them into the main hall, where many politicians and well-known figures of the city wait for their Avatar to arrive.

She meets Chief Beifong again, scowling when she tells her that she’s done nothing to deserve this, and then meets the industrialist Hiroshi Sato, who introduces his daughter – Asami – who has brought her friends Mako and Bolin.

“Hey,” she says, surprised.

“Hi, Korra!” Bolin says. 

“Hey, guys,” Korra says. “Who’s this?”

“I’m Asami,” she says, extending her hand in Korra’s direction as she looks her over. Korra notices her fancy red dress, pearls, and flawless wavy dark hair. Her makeup is also perfect, and her smile makes Korra feel inadequate. She shakes her hand and quickly steps back, surveying them. “It’s lovely to meet you.”

Hiroshi Sato, Asami father, walks away to talk to more businesspeople and leaves them to their conversation. Asami is glued to Mako’s side, not touching him, but very close, as if watching. Korra is pulled away rather abruptly by Councilman Tarrlok, who leads her to a gathering of reporters. After being nearly interrogated by the group and badgered into joining Tarrlok’s stupid task force, Korra leaves rather abruptly, her eyes catching those of her pro-bending rivals’ and their new sponsor before she exits the building, almost unable to hold her frustration in.

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The next night, Korra takes to the arena to hang out with Ula and play the match they’re supposed to be doing. After they slotter their competition, she goes to their apartment and up to the top. When looking through the topmost part of the attic, she finds another set of ladders and a hatch.

“Hey, Ula,” Korra says, looking up at it as she moves the ladder. “What’s this?”

“The roof,” she says. “You can go up there…Ula doesn’t like it up there, but it’s okay.”

“Thanks.”

Korra scales the ladder quickly and makes it onto the roof before too long, looking up at the starlit sky and hating that the glittering lights of the Pro-bending arena wash out the sky, obscuring it. It’s nearly midnight, and all of the spectators have left for the night. It isn’t very long, with Korra sitting silently on the rooftop, overlooking the city and into the sky, that the lights are shut off. 

She looks away from the stars and the structures to the other tower of the Pro-bending arena and sees someone there.

“Hey!” she yells, moving to the lip of the wall, “who’s there?”

“It’s me,” the person yells, and stands up. 

It’s Mako.

“What are you doing?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” he says. 

Korra gets to the far edge of her tower and runs across the flat roof until she jumps headlong across it, barely reaching Mako’s tower, only propelled by waterbending she forces up to help herself.

“Hey,” she says as she climbs over. The shocked look on his face amuses her, and his arms are held out as if to catch her.

“Uh…hey,” he says, standing upright. “What was that?”

“I just wanted to talk to you, I guess,” Korra says.

“But you hate me,” he says. 

“I don’t hate you,” Korra says.

“Oh,” Mako says. “But you don’t ever talk to me and you look angry every time you see me.”

“I haven’t really been talking to anyone lately,” Korra says, looking away from him and out into the expanse of ocean visible from his tower. “Tarrlok made me join his stupid task force and I haven’t had time for anything.”

Mako sits down on a bench on the roof and gestures to Korra to do the same. She slumps down on it, thinking about everything and suddenly sharing all of this information with the boy she didn’t know what to think of.

“I missed one of my matches and all of my practices,” Korra says, “And the tournament is next week…”

“I know how you feel,” Mako says as she trails off. His voice is soft, different than she expected. She turns toward him. “I took up another job three weeks ago at the plant, but it’s not really helping, and we almost had to bail on the tournament, as you know,” he says, remembering Bolin telling him about Korra’s offer that they never needed.

“I’m glad you got a sponsor,” Korra says, unable to look at him.

“Me too,” he says. “We would probably be back on the streets if it weren’t for Asami’s father.”

“Why?”

“Well,” Mako says, taking a deep breath, “our parents were killed when we were young.”

Korra is frozen, unable to say anything as her biggest competition tells her his defining life story. She stares at the concrete roof floor as he speaks.

“We’ve been on our own ever since.”

“…”

They sit there in silence for a few minutes until Korra gives up and changes the subject.

“Got any good strategies for the tournament?”

“I do, but I’m not telling you,” he says, a laugh in his voice.

“So stingy!” she says. He smiles.

Korra stands up in front of the boy, thrusting her right hand out into his space as she stares hard into his golden eyes. 

“I wish you luck, Mr. Hat Trick,” she says. “You’re going to need it if you plan on facing us.”

Mako scoffs. “We’ll see about that, Avatar.” But he takes her hand anyway, giving it a good shake before she walks away.

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	8. Chapter 8

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The next week Korra takes time off from her position on the task force to compete in the tournament. Umi cuts practices down a few hours so they have enough energy for it, but that doesn’t help Korra, who continues to have daily, long, and unsuccesful sessions of airbending training.

That night, Korra finishes up the match with the Mo Ce Mongoose Lizards, a team she really can’t believe got into the tournament based on the way their firebender falls into the pool when dodging a disk from Ula. Korra sees the boy step, positioned in the third zone, out of the way, lose his balance, and fall into the pool. It's almost funny just because of the sheer idiocy of it, but also because it causes their first win. They left the ring cheering, sweaty, and proud. As they talk about their next matches in the locker room adjoining the ring, the Fire Ferrets appear suddenly to take on their first match of the tournament. Bolin is talking incessantly as Ula quits speaking to Korra altogether, her eyes drawn toward the other earthbender.

“Hey, good match! We’re about to play ours,” he says quickly, forcing the words out fast before the platform starts moving away. “You should come to dinner with us tonight!” Bolin yells just as they begin to leave, and Korra sits on the bench, changing slowly into her clothes as Ula looks away from Bolin. She doesn’t notice the quick glance both his brother and Asami give him as they make their way onto the ring, because she is busy avoiding the eyes of the gorgeous heiress standing across the room from her. Her dark hair covers the right side of her face, obscuring her from Umi’s view as she removes the thick padded gloves from her hands. Umi looks at her suggestively, eyeing first the oblivious girl in red, rooting for her team, before Korra dresses rapidly and leaves the room. She waits in their apartment until the match is finally over and her teammates arrive to drag her to the nearest noodle joint. 

“I really don’t want to do this,” Korra says to Ula, probably a bit louder than necessary as they drag along behind everyone else. Hasook and Umi both don’t want to be there, but Umi says that the food at Narook’s is the best in town, so Korra allows it, looking away from Mako and Asami walking at the front of their group, a foot apart and speaking quickly in voices she can’t hear. Korra doesn’t want to be there at all, and Bolin walks beside them, trying to appease the girls. She enjoys his company and is thankful for the consideration, but Ula’s red face as she walks beside her, unable to make eye contact with the other earthbender, she just needs him to be distracted for a few minutes to level with her friend.

Bolin runs up to ask his brother something and she turns to Ula.

“What’s wrong?” Korra asks.

“Just nervous,” Ula says. “Never been anywhere with Bolin, you know. Not at night.”

“This is not even a date,” Korra says. “It’s fine, just talk to him. He’s really nice.”

“I know he’s really nice, Korra!” Ula whispers, a little annoyed and a lot afraid he’ll hear her. “That’s why I like him, you know?”

“Look,” Korra says, turning her friend around to catch her eyes. “This is not a big deal at all. At least you have communication skills. I’m hopeless. Besides, you’re a catch. Bolin just doesn’t know anything about you yet. And he won’t unless you talk to him.”

Ula’s lips twist as she considers Korra’s words, and purses her lips nervously. “Okay,” she says, going over timidly to stand next to him as they walk to the restaurant.

Korra stands at the back of the group, walking alone and wishing she was elsewhere as she watches Mako and Asami make small talk out of the corner of her eye. She sits down at the booth at Narooks, orders a huge bowl of turkey-chicken spiced noodles and some tea, and waits for this night to end.

Mako sits beside his friend, who he has noticed sits closer to him than she usually does, and when his eyes flick to the bored countenance of his competition, the Avatar, Asami brings him back into her conversation with Umi and Bolin. Hasook sits there like Korra, looking away when he notices another competitor across the room and gets up to use the bathroom. 

“So, are you excited about your matches?” Asami says, talking animatedly. 

“I am,” Ula says, “Who are we playing next, Umi?”

“The Komodo Rhinos, from Ko Lau,” she says, still perusing the menu for something to eat. Korra has been here before with her, but Umi always gets something different.

“Oooh, they’re good,” says Bolin, leaning across the girl to get to the basket of eggrolls in the middle of the table. Ula blushes and Korra smirks as she moves away from Bolin’s muscular arm.

“We know they’re good,” Umi says tiredly as Hasook sits back down. “That’s why we’ve been training so hard for a month.”

“Only a month?” Mako says, looking pointedly at Korra and grinning. Korra is irritated by his gesture, but makes an effort not to acknowledge it. She fails.

“Well, you know,” Korra says, waving her chopsticks around dismissively, “I’ve only been in town for that long, and I’ve been doing other things,” she says, not articulating her hard work in airbending training, and the task force, and the exhibition matches.

“Hope it was worth it,” Mako says.

Korra turns red in the face and stands up where she is, setting her chopsticks down roughly and bending over the table. 

“Hey, buddy, I’ve been working really hard -” she begins, almost shouting as she starts talking at Mako, who sits there expectantly, allowing her to get angry, when suddenly the entire group of Wolfbats, the reigning champions of Pro-bending, and their horde of women, appear beside their booth. Korra’s words are cut off by her surprise.

“Ugh,” Umi says, turning away as Tahno, their captain, stares condescendingly at each person at the table, stopping to give special attention to the Avatar.

“Well, if it isn’t my competition,” he says, his voice rumbling in his chest as his gaze causes Korra to turn toward him, irritated. “The two worst teams in pro-bending…how’d you get into the tournament again?” He pauses. “Especially you…Avatar.” He mispronounces the whole word and Korra’s face contorts as she scoffs at him.

“You know,” Tahno says as he leans forward, getting into her personal space, “If you’d like to learn how a real pro bends, I could give you some private lessons.”

“Hey,” Mako says, standing up to look at the overly primped man with exasperation and a bit of jealousy, “She doesn’t need anyone’s help. And she doesn’t need to learn how a real pro bends.”

Korra is really pissed off by this point, so she gets out of the booth to look at Tahno, getting as much in his face as he got in hers. “You wanna go toe to toe with me, Pretty Boy?”

“Go for it. I’ll give you the first shot.”

Korra is about to lay the guy out flat when Ula pulls on her arm and Mako flinches to stop her from completely breaking his nose when she puts the two fingers of her right hand in her mouth, making a loud whistle.

To which her Polar-bear dog responds.

And then Tahno leaves, rather hastily, but not after letting out the girliest squeal Korra has ever heard.

The table bursts out laughing when Korra sits back down, even Hasook and Umi chuckling a bit before she digs back into her food.

“Oh, that was amazing,” Bolin says, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes.

“Good job not hitting him in the face,” Mako says. Asami sits wordless next to him, still dumbfounded by what had happened.

“I was about to,” Korra says, her mouth full of turkey-chicken.

“We know,” Umi says. “If you had, I would have taken it out of your hide for getting us disqualified.”

“And then we would have won the championship,” Bolin says, looking sleepily at the ceiling before Mako kicks him under the table.

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Korra starts staying up in the middle of the night - she can’t sleep, not after the mistake she’d made of challenging Amon to his face the week before, only for it to nearly lead to her demise. She hadn’t told anyone except Tenzin what had happened and how it had affected her. She was terrified. She stayed up late, worrying about her duty to the world, her duty to her team, her duty to figure out what was going on with the man terrorizing the city. She started with walking around the island aimlessly at night until Tenzin would find her when Meelo or Ikki would wake up in the middle of the night, needing to be pacified with a story or a warm glass of milk. She kept getting caught and started to stay over with Umi and Ula during the nights because they understood what it was like not to be able to sleep from fear. She started sitting on the roof of the pro-bending arena’s tower, staring first at the city lights, watching them go out one by one and then staring at the moon, a spirit she’d heard an incredibly sad story about more than once.

As it turns out, she sees Mako across the towers more than once, and ends up on the other side on the second night, after the situation with Tahno.

“I didn’t need any help, you know.”

“I know,” Mako says. “But that doesn’t mean he should get to harass you.”

“I can protect myself fine, City Boy,” Korra says, putting her arms behind her head as she leans back, looking into the moon as it shines on them. On these nights, she avoids looking directly at Mako, trying to suppress whatever it is she’s feeling for him, even though Asami has attached herself to him, and it bothers her for a reason she hasn’t had the courage to face.

It’s just his voice, then, and the comforting logic of his words, that draws her to the roof at night.

“I know you can, Korra,” Mako says. 

Korra’s breath halts. There are three more games in the tournament if they keep winning, and at some point, she’ll have to play the Fire Ferrets again, and she doesn’t know how well she’ll play if he keeps slipping compliments into their interactions. She’s supposed to hate him, right? He’s her rival. 

“You know, you’re not as a bad as I thought,” Korra says, then immediately regrets the words.

“I’m not?” Mako says, almost laughing.

“Nope.”

“You’re not bad either,” Mako says. 

“So, ready to kick some butt?”

“Always,” Mako says.

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The next day, the Ferrets play first, and Korra’s team is waiting to enter the ring to play the Ko Lau Komodo Rhinos afterward. They, of course, win their match because Umi’s been working with Hasook on his waterbending and the Fabulous Bending Brothers are just that - fabulous. Korra winces with each member of the other team that he sends into the drink with his firebending, trying to make critiques on his style and noticing how incredibly accurate and athletic it is. When he succeeds, connecting punches and decimating the other team, Ula looks over to see Korra turned around, pacing, and red-faced.

“Korra, are you okay?” 

“What? No, I’m fine,” Korra says, covering her face as she goes back over to her locker to finish putting on her gloves and pads before their match. The Ferrets exits the ring after their win, offering encouragement before the Rabiroos go out to try their hand at the next match of the tournament. Korra has to look away from the entire team lest they see her red cheeks. Damn that firebender and his flawless skills, she thinks.

This match is much more difficult than the last, and Umi has to bail them out more than once because Korra is distracted. She’s thinking constantly about everything going on, and Ula is just as sidetracked, causing her quick demise into the pool of water below the ring.

It’s only when Korra is standing in the third zone, Umi in the second, shouting at her to wake up, to get out of her own head, with one round left to go, that she finally starts to perform. A few quick shots to their firebender turns him around long enough for one of Umi’s blasts sends him into the drink. Korra lines them up and Umi finishes them off, finally, in the fourth round with very little luck on their side.

They walk back into the locker room, Umi sulking and Ula looking guiltily at the floor when Korra apologizes once and leaves for home. She doesn’t visit the roof that night, opting to attempt sleeping again.

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The next day brings their biggest challenge thus far, a match against the White Falls Wolfbats and their waterbender, Tahno, still irritates Korra at the sight of him, making her irrationally angry.

Mako and Bolin exit the ring, smiling at each other as they talk about going to the championship match, finally. Korra steps onto the platform nervously as she puts her helmet on, as close to afraid as she could be while waiting to start the match. Ula and Umi have played this team before, but they were frightening, and often cheated to rise through the ranks of the pro-bending teams. Korra is frozen, looking out at the ring, trying to build her confidence when she feels someone touch her arm. It’s Umi. 

“Don’t worry,” Umi says. If we’re focused, we’ll be fine.”

The platform begins moving as Korra hears Bolin shout, “Go Rabiroos!”

She turns around to look at the other team, all of them smiling with encouragement as they depart the holding room.

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The match is so difficult, and not because the Wolfbats are skilled benders. They are very skilled, actually, but they’ve gotten so many breaks that Korra can hear complaints from at least half of the spectators there. The referees have been paid off. Umi bends with her whole strength, something that Korra has never seen her do because everything comes easily to her. Korra does the same, putting all of her passion into the punches and attempting to take down Tahno, their captain. The Wolfbats win the first match, putting both Korra and Ula in the drink and forcing Umi back to the second zone. They come back sweating and soaked and stand there, strategizing before the next match.

“Go after Shaozu first,” Umi says, darting her eyes across the ring. “He’s the weakest link right now, and if we take them out one by one, we can win.”

“Okay,” Ula says. The team lines up for the last round, sweating and exhausted, and Korra lines up in front of Tahno, trying to prepare herself to keep him totally occupied while her teammates eliminate his.

"Why, hello, little girl," Tahno says, beginning his strikes when the bell rings. Korra is the worst opponent, she really is, especially against Tahno, whose verbal jabs make her reckless and rough with her movements.

"Pretty boy," Korra says in a short greeting, letting the fireball that flies from her fist do the rest of the talking when Tahno is pushed back almost into the second zone. Ula punches a disk his way, shoving him back just far enough for the buzzer to go off. Korra smirks, giving her teammate a thumbs up before dodging a water attack from the angry waterbender before he freezes her foot to the floor.

Umi cartwheels over after eliminating Shaozu from the ring, now setting her sights on Ming. Korra continues to occupy Tahno's attentions, maintaining his gaze as the rest of his team is eliminated. She trades blows with him, one by one until Tahno is bending from his spot in the back of the second zone, eyes angry, his cool facade gone. Ming goes over the edge, but not before a dirty trick he and Tahno use sends Umi out of the ring, holding her arm to her chest when she comes up from the water. Korra gasps and Ula turns back, livid at the waterbender for something that may have compromised their team and worse, injured her best friend.

She screams as she bends disks toward him rapidly, and Korra looks over at Ula, whose grimace scares her a bit.

Korra helps Ula send Tahno out with a few quick blasts as his dirty bending and illegal usage of ice prove useless when he's outmatched. The buzzer goes off, announcing the victory of the Red Sands Rabiroos.

Korra turns and sees Ula's wide smile and laugh as she walk toward her, giving her a hug.

"The Rabiroos are going to the finals!" the announcer yells as the crowd jumps, screaming.

"That's was pretty much the coolest thing I've ever seen," Bolin says to the team when they go back to their holding area.

Korra throws her arm around Ula's shoulders as the girl stares sheepishly at the ground. "It was all this one right here," Korra says.

"Oh, no it wasn't."

"You got Tahno, and that is not an easy feat," Korra says, and Bolin's just smiling at Ula as she laughs nervously. 

"No," Bolin says. "You did great."

"You all did," Mako says, and Asami nods, smiling in her spot beside the firebender. Korra feels her smile fall and pushes to her locker as everyone else stands talking.

She's just ready to go home.

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She doesn't end up sleeping at home that night when Umi and Ula drag her playfully to their apartment to have a bit of cactus juice cocktail...at least, they have some, and consequently fall to loud bouts of sleep in the middle of the night on their couches in the living room. Korra goes up the roof after putting them satisfactorily in place, smiling fondly as she remembers doing the same thing for Ikki, Meelo, and Jinora more than once in the past two months. 

Korra's heart is aching and confused, torn up with responsibilities, expectations, and sentiments.

She stares out at the moon again, praying for something there, to hear Yue's or Aang's voices, but she hasn't gotten anything, not yet.

"Hey," she hears and looks across the roof again to the other tower.

Korra stares at the other bender as he smiles at her. She doesn't understand why he would, he has Asami, and she has the world. And her team. They are separate, aren't they?

"I'm not coming over there," Korra says.

"Why not?"

"I'm tired," she says.

Mako shrugs and jumps across himself, forcing himself across the expanse with short bursts of firebending. He catches his footing on the edge and stumbles onto her roof. 

"Again," Mako says. "Hey."

"Hey," she says back. She sits down and covers her face with her hands, closes her eyes, and sighs deeply.

"Something bothering you?" Mako asks when he goes to sits down next to her on the bench up on the roof. 

"It's nothing," she says. "Just worrying about something that shouldn't matter."

"Shouldn't," Mako says, thinking. "It does matter, though." He sounds concerned. She turns her head away. She thinks about using sarcasm against this inquiry, considering that he is part of the reason she feels this way, but she is legitimately exhausted and too worried to expend that energy.

"Yeah," Korra says finally. "It does."

"What is it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"That's just it," Korra says. "I do mind."

"Oh."

"But it's more than one thing...it's my fear of the Equalists, and of doing all of this right, and saving the world and the city, and dealing with pressure...at least that's what Master Tenzin said. I just come here to blow off steam."

"You're sure?"

"Yeah...why else would I be here?"

Mako's face falls. "I, uh, thought you liked it. Fighting, I mean."

"I do, but it's not my top priority right now. This is just a hiatus from my real job."

Mako is starting to look more and more distraught. He's been good at covering his emotions, and Korra has never been good at it. She's not doing it now. 

"I just need to have a good cry, I guess," Korra says, sighing deeply like it's a requirement and not an emotional response. 

"Huh?"

"You know," Korra says, "Master Katara used to tell me that though you have to cover up your emotions a lot, especially with this job title, it's good to just get alone sometimes when you're feeling out of sorts and just cry. It gets out the bad juju or something. She called it negative energy, but juju sounds more like it, right?"

"...I guess," Mako says, geniunely confused now.

"Okay. You can go if you want, but this might get a little messy."

Mako turns his head then, staring right at Korra. 

"Why are you staring?" she says, her voice becoming thick and her eyes getting wider before she closes them, tears seeping slowly from the corners.

"Dunno," Mako says. Korra looks right at the ground, away from him, and covers her head with her palms, and breathes in really deeply. The stars illuminates them and when the lights of the arena flicker off, she starts to sob deeply, her body moving as she begins crying. She doesn't usually do this, and she never does this around other people, but it's not a normal night.

Mako has to stop himself from asking if she'll be okay when her tears well up on her clothes, staining them a darker blue, and holds his arms tightly to his sides as she shakes. 

Mako's eyebrows draw together and his face contorts as this nearly invincible girl, the Avatar, and his best competition, falls apart.

He scoots closer, and she looks up at him, her face stained with tears and her nose running a bit. She wipes her face and turns her eyes toward his. He puts his arm around her hesitantly, but not awkwardly, and pulls her smaller body into his, not looking at her as she leans onto him. She continues sobbing, more quietly at first, and when he puts his other arm around her, turning to bring her into his embrace and crush her to his chest, he shuts his eyes, wincing when the sobs break free of her hold on them and she sounds like a wounded animal.

After a while, he pulls back, giving her a tiny smile when she begins to settle down.

"Spirits, I'm sorry," Korra says. "I'm just a total mess today."

"It's fine," Mako says. He brushes the hair out of her wet eyes and off of her forehead.

"I just...suck at being the Avatar," Korra says.

"You don't," Mako says. "You work hard, and even if you're not good now, you're trying to get better. You'll get there."

"You think?"

"Yes," he says.

"So, um," Korra says. "Why are you being so nice to me?"

"Well, I like you," Mako says succinctly. 

"You do? Why?"

“I’m not sure yet,” Mako says.

“Thanks,” Korra says.

She pulls away from him after a few minutes, putting a foot of space between them on the stone bench. He looks up at the sky as she wipes her eyes again.

“Can you not tell anyone about this?” Korra asks. “They’ll think I’m weak.”

“I don’t think that,” Mako says.

“You’d be the only one,” Korra says.

His gaze is fixed on her blue eyes as she glances back at him before reaching the ladder to go downstairs.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” she says.

“I’m gonna kick your butt,” Mako says.

“You won’t,” Korra says.

“You don’t know that,” he says. She climbs onto the ladder at smiles at him.

“Bye, Mako,” Korra says.

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	9. Chapter 9

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Standing in the locker room for the last time that season, Korra takes deep breaths as she looks out onto the ring, staring at it, thinking about what had happened last night and what has to happen today if her teammates and friends are going to continue living here. She thinks most about last night, and what the hell was going on with Mako. She thinks about the game, mostly, and what she’s going to do if they don’t win. Umi claims she has a job lined up somewhere, but this is really their last chance. They have to go back home after this, their separate ways, and stop pro-bending. Korra knows that if the Ferrets don’t win, it’s possible that Mako and Bolin will end up back on the streets, and Hasook will go wherever his family needs him.

Ula gets dressed slowly, checking her pads several times before they line up to go out and play this last match. Korra takes a deep breath before the announcer begins speaking.

“Our first team, the Red Sands Rabiroos!” he says, screaming. They don’t have anything fancy planned for their debut, but Bolin has Pabu on his shoulder on the opposite end of the ring. Umi shakes her head and Ula giggles.

“And their opponents, the Future Industries Fire Ferrets!” Pabu wears a tiny white and red uniform that features the Future Industries logo. Korra smiles as he jumps through a disk. Bolin takes a bow. Ula sighs deeply and Korra turns to smirk at her before walking to her spot on the center of the ring, across from Bolin. He’s wearing a wide grin, like he usually does, and Korra tries to identify his weak spot before settling into her bending stance.

The bell goes off almost immediately, and the immensity of the crowd there is amazing…there have never been this many people here. The police are guarding the place as a result of a minor Equalist incident in one of the boroughs during the week of the Tournament, something Korra missed while she was training and on leave from the Task Force. The police are vigilant, and made a security sweep that morning during the Rabiroo’s training time.

Bolin takes a shot at her immediately, and she moves out of the way before the disk gets her in the stomach. She retaliates with a quick blast of fire to Bolin’s left, and it pushes him back. Ula is shoved back by Hasook, and lands in the second zone. Umi and Korra manage to push all of the boys back to the second zone, and Ula goes off the deep end into the drink. Ula gets Mako and Hasook back as far as she can before Korra sends Bolin into the third zone, winning their first round. The announcer calls it for the Rabiroos, and Ula comes back onto the ring, sweating and soaking wet. They circle up to talk.

“This is harder than I thought,” says Umi, who stretches a tightly wound shoulder. She’s been nervous about this all week. Korra and Ula agree with her. They line back up again, this time, Korra is across from Hasook, whose scowl irritates her. The bell goes off, and she uses a big blast to knock him right off the ring. She hears the ref call a foul on her.

“Overuse of fire! Move back to zone 2!”

“Ugh!” Korra says. She goes back, setting back up and avoiding the stares of her teammates. Mako looks at her too, smirking at Korra’s impulsiveness. She ignores his eyes, still confused about the week’s events. It’s not good for her to like him. He’s great, but she’s got bigger things to worry about…like kicking his team’s butt in this last match. She takes her spot behind the line.

They start up again, and Korra uses her firepower sparingly, looking away when Umi glares at her. Mako is relentless with his attacks on Ula, and she’s knocked to the second zone as well. When Umi is knocked back at almost the same time as Mako is, Bolin already in the second zone, the ref calls a tie. Ula wants to take this, but Korra knows it’s a bad idea, as does Umi. She steps up, looking at her friend’s eyes when the other team wins the coin toss and Mako steps into the ring. She takes her stance in the inner circle across from Mako. He looks serious.

The bell goes off instantly, and Korra rolls to avoid Mako’s first attack. She sends another at his feet, but he jumps as it catches his ankle. He spins around as Korra lunges at him, and their faces get close, her helmet scraping past his as she falls off the platform.

“The Fire Ferrets win the tiebreaker!” the referee shouts. Korra takes her helmet off and rubs her face, annoyed. Ula looks worriedly at her while Umi shakes her head, staring at her feet. Mako turns to talk to Bolin on the side of the ring while Hasook makes his way up from the drink.

They line up once again, and this time, Korra faces Mako. Neither of them are smiling when the bell rings, but they don’t try to destroy each other as they usually do in these situations. The two teams continue, at a standstill, until a combination of shots sends both Hasook and Umi into the drink simultaneously. Korra looks over the edge, amazed and shocked, until a blast brings her back into the game. She dodges, cartwheeling past Ula, whose face reminds Korra a little of herself on the night Amon could have taken her bending. She turns away, looking at her opponent before he sends of burst of fire in her direction, knocking her backward. She stops, running headlong across the ring to the far edge of the second zone. Ula stands alone in the front, spinning disks towards Mako and then Bolin. Korra is hit squarely in the stomach by one of Bolin’s disks and hurtles backward into the third zone, followed quickly by Ula.

They share a short glance before a fire blast sends Ula off the end of the ring. Korra prepares for the bending attacks of Mako and Bolin as she jumps hastily around the third zone, feeling air as her left foot sweeps off the back. She manages to knock Bolin into the ring with a minorly illegal bit of firebending, sweeping under his feet for a millisecond too long. When Mako retaliates, Korra falls, spinning into the drink.

The Fire Ferrets are victorious.

.  
.  
.

She emerges from the drink quickly, pulls her helmet off, and scoffs. She swims to the edge of the drink, where a platform is spread out under the ring. She notices that Umi and Ula are not there.

Not at all.

Korra gets onto her feet under the ring and hears screams throughout the arena, a cacophonous melding of noises from the spectators. She begins worrying, remembering Tenzin and Lin patrolling the stands around the ring, looking for dissenters from Amon’s radio announcement. She’d been out with Naga when it had happened, but managed to convince the council to allow the final match to happen. They’d threatened, and now they were following through. She looks around and sees her teammates, along with Bolin and Hasook, tied to one of the posts. She sees Mako nowhere because he hadn’t been forced off the ring. She’s suddenly very grateful for Bolin’s presence below, and walks over to them, splashing them to wake them up.

Then she sees the crackling out of the corner of her eye and ducks low, swinging her leg out to catch the man under his, making him fall. His kali sticks drop and hit the ground, and Korra begins running, using her waterbending to propel herself up the side of the ring, where she sees Mako standing on the other side of the ring.

Amon is there.

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.  
.

Korra lands on the edge of the ring from which she’s been knocked only five minutes, probably less, before. Mako doesn’t see her from being surrounded by Equalists and forced downward, his hands held tight and bound while his head is forced down, held to the ground. He can’t look around, but Korra sees the anger and fear in his eyes. He tries in vain to push against the Equalists, but there are four of them, Amon’s cold masked face looking toward him with disgust – or, at least, that’s what Korra assumes.

She begins running around the sides of the ring, Amon neglecting to move to follow her as he gives his speech. He talks proudly about new technologies for the Equalists – a glove that shocks with electricity, and Korra is followed by one of them, holding a shocking glove in his hand. He reaches out toward her, but she runs across the ring, firebending at the man relentlessly.

Korra fights him, eventually throwing him off the ring and into the drink with waterbending. Amon’s speech continues until he’s in the water below, and she turns toward the man, angry. He finishes his speech easily, handing off the microphone in his hand to another Equalist.  
“Let him go!” Korra screams, running toward Mako headlong. He fought to look up, but was held down by the Equalists. Amon slowly walks closer, narrowing his eyes through the mask at Korra.

“Try to stop me, Avatar,” he says, and suddenly her legs freeze up, slowing her down as she tries to get toward Mako. To save to him, or do anything, but she’s gummed up where she is. The sensation only lasts a moment until another Equalist approaches her with a glove, shocking her where she is.

“Korra!” she hears Mako scream on her way to the floor.

The blast doesn’t knock her out, but it does paralyze her, and she sees everything that happen next, as if it was in slow motion.

She sees Amon walk up to him, she sees Mako’s widened eyes, staring first at her and then at the Equalist leader as he pulls his chin roughly. Mako pulls away as much as he can, but he’s held down.

“No!” Korra yells, feeling her eyes get wet as Amon reaches back to hold his neck up. Her voice is shattered from so much yelling, and everything feels stupid now...all of the drama between them, not wanting to like him, none of it is important when Mako’s eyes flicker to her and she can’t shut her eyes, can’t move, can’t do anything. She tries so hard to get up and run to him, to airbend, or something, but she’s stuck. Just when she gets her hand to move from in front of her face, her arms plastered to the floor of the ring, Amon’s thumb comes down on Mako’s forehead.

And she screams.

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.  
.

Korra doesn’t particularly remember what happens after that – there’s a lot of screaming, and a lot of people dropping like flies, and Lin shows up and helps her when Amon’s airships are about to depart from above the arena. She remembers her fist firing into the entrance of the airship, and she remembers picking Mako up from the drink afterward, dragging his huge body to Tenzin. She remembers going back to Air Temple Island, where she sits waiting for a miracle.

She holds his hand in hers, squeezing it as tightly as he squeezes back, sleeping fitfully in one of the beds on Air Temple Island. Tenzin stands in the doorway talking to one of the Air Acolytes about a message to his mother in the South Pole, but Korra doesn’t overhear, or doesn’t think about it. She looks at Mako’s face, noting the sweat on his forehead and the way he shakes, not much, but enough for her to notice. It irritates her that she can’t do much for him except this, a small bit of comfort, and hoping that Katara will arrive soon.

Tenzin tells her later that because the arena is wrecked from the attack, they’re closing it down until repairs can be made.

“Where will they stay?” Korra asks instantly.

“They can stay here, until they want to leave,” Tenzin says.

“Thanks,” Korra says, breathing in for the first time since it happened.

.  
.  
.

Mako wakes up at odd time during the day, and Korra is there every time he does, whether she’s asleep or awake. The first time is in the middle of the night, and he’s suddenly hungry for something. He gets up, slowly detaching his hand from hers as she snores beside the bed. He looks at her drooling and her arms folded underneath her head on the bedside and wonders why he’s here, and remembers that it’s because of her.

He walks slowly out of the room, noticing the loose shirt and pants he wears – and wondering how they got there. He looks down the hallways to where he imagines the kitchen might be – and finds a washroom. He turns around.

“Hey,” Korra says, rubbing her eye with the heel of her hand as she faces him. “Hungry?”

Fifteen minutes later, they sit in the kitchen around the low table, Korra handing him a carton of Flameo Instant noodles because it’s the simplest thing for the middle of the night. She’d had to heat up the water with firebending, but turned around so Mako wouldn’t see. He couldn’t feel the warmth of it in his fingers anymore – and it was terrifying, like he’d lost an arm.

“Thanks,” Mako says, using chopsticks to sift through the noodles, which have bits of chicken in them.

“You’re welcome. Nobody else eats these,” Korra says, digging into her own carton.

“It’s pretty good for instant,” Mako says, used to the noodles at Narook’s, which was Bolin’s favorite place.

“Yeah,” Korra says.

They continue eating in silence for a while until Korra asks, “How are you?”

“I don’t know yet, honestly,” Mako says after swallowing.

“I’m really sorry,” Korra says. “I don’t…uh…” She looks down at her noodles.

“You tried,” Mako says.

“But that’s all I did. Trying isn’t going to save anyone,” Korra says.

“I’m not okay,” Mako says, holding his voice together. “I’m not, and I won’t be, but this isn’t your fault.” He reaches out to her, placing his hand over her clenched fist, and pulls her hand into his.

“I’m going to make it okay, Mako,” Korra says, looking at him across the table through the water in her eyes. “I promise you that.”

Mako squeezes her hand.

.

.

.


End file.
